Archive for October, 2012

It’s Halloween, but I’ve yet to be bit on the petroleros – black and orange. I’ve barely even had anything hit a trolled lure. It’s all about the bait. The temps are dropping fast. Air temps are pretty nice, though sometimes a long-sleeve or a cup of morning coffee hits the spot. We still read 78-80 degree water yesterday and caught a large sail. We caught a 17# sail a week ago. Yesterday we caught two nice marlin and a 23# dorado within an hour of leaving the Island. We missed the fifteen yellowtail in two hour bite the other day, but I caught two large ones and we burned a little time with fifteen bonita. Missed one 25-30# dorado. We only caught two as the fish seemed full from the full moon. Our friends were farther out and caught a good number. No reports of tuna for a week, but maybe soon. Looks like a few days of good weather. The warm water is holding on.

The dorado are moving back in with the bait. We’ve had some amazing fishing during this time the last couple of years. A lot of nice small to medium-sized bulls. The longliners haven’t caught them all. Some reports of tuna out there – that the commercial boats haven’t raided yet. Seemed like they shut off yesterday after two quick sail releases. The storm never got too bad, but I wouldn’t want to be out there today. 29 releases in seven days. I think that’s the best billfish average ever. It might even get better still.

I’d like to announce with excitement that Team Margarita took the Cantina Cup, but the tournament director made an incredible error. I guess that’s what happens when a diver is in charge of a fishing tournament. I wouldn’t ask an NFL referee to judge Olmpic gymnastics. After struggling to get the V back in the water with new cutlass bearings and maintenance work done, I had to put off a group until Saturday that had been waiting all week. A nice morning surprise water pump issue kept us at the dock Friday morning and we hurried to try to get both boats in the water Friday. We went all in in the pots -$2K. Friday morning one engine wouldn’t start. We left the dock thinking maybe we could get a little charge in the battery or get the connection to tighten better. It didn’t happen and before we left the moorings, turned around to meet the mechanic and go get the other starter to try. Getting to the house, he informed me the motor was full of water. Knowing we had $2K invested and the World Offshore inviation on the line, I had to make the unfortunate call to take the other boat. I thought we could find them a reasonable charter to the Island, but they didn’t like the boat and maybe it wasn’t correctly conveyed that I’d make up all differences in price for another boat. Tournament control O.K.ed us to go out on the other boat. I knew they had made a rule about switching boats because people were upset about the year before when we had a fuel pump line fall off on the way in, and received a little help getting in to ensure that we were there on time. Many people complained to the tournament director even though there was no rule against it, hoping to get us disqualified. The new rule stated that no boat could be changed after the start of the fishing day. Well, it took six hours for the tournament director to let us know that we were DQed for the day, after we had five fish releases and would have won the daily. He was out fishing on another boat which probably didn’t help. I think the only person on his rule’s committee was his tournament control voice. They made the ruling that the shotgun start was the start of the fishing day. He thought he could get away from having any conflict this year. On the last day we had five releases that would have been good for first. One boat posted eleven releases, but after hours of three or four boats of witnesses coming up with reports, they finally admitted passing around rods after the one minute deadline and three fish were disqualified. Another boat who had six fish to win the Sunday daily also lost a fish due to the fish being caught on two lines at once. I witnessed one boat forcing their mate to hold up thrashing billfish to his chest for up to a half-minute at a time to get the pictures and the hook out. Our fishing community has me saddened. Time to just fish for fun.
We’ve just been nailing them on the naked rigged ballyhoo. My new box of fifty hooks is almost gone. All the fish have swam off healthy and I haven’t even had a scratch. We’ve had awesome battles on 30#. We had a school of maybe eight sailfish come up yesterday just a hundred yards off the Island. No yellowtail yet. A couple 350# marlin have been caught. The dorado are getting closer. Will be out tomorrow before the first frontal wind of winter hits. The water is still 86 and blue, so things are far from over.

Back from our summer vacation. Got to see my new neice Lola in San Diego along with some friends. We went to the White Mountains, Lake Powell, and Lee’s Ferry. It was a nice change of pace.
Got back and was in the Mexico national championships the next day vying for a invitation to France for the World’s. I fished on the Corona Boat which does 76 knots, though we only went 42 usually. A little faster than what I’m use to. Almost had one small one the first day, but no luck. The next day we only had one other billfish bite, though got one nice 20# dorado and two 30-35# tuna. I think some other boats stuck it out on the reef. The action was slowe under the full moon. First had four releases and second maybe only two. My friends caught a 65# bull the other day. No tuna reported until ours. Some decent billfish and dorado action was had before the full moon in some cooler water. The water is clearing up nicely after some colored water. Not sure where all the bait is. There is nice cool water up north. The fish will be here. A 500# marlin was caught the other day. Cantina Cup this weekend. Will be out fishing hard this month. Stay tuned!